1885] LABOUCHERE'S LETTERS 253

some hurry, because the Tories would make every effort
to capture Parnell, whose tendency would be to shilly-
shally, and for the time to agree to nothing. Labou-
chere's Irish correspondent, who had not seen Parnell
for over a fortnight, was extremely candid about his
chief's limitations and peculiarities! He concluded:

46 In my deliberate opinion Mr. Gladstone is the only man
who can settle the Irish question. He is the only man with
hand and heart for the task ; the only man who can reduce
to decency the contemptible wretches who so largely com-
pose the Liberal party. I thank God that so many of the
howlers and gloaters over our sufferings have met their fate,"

But the Liberal leader was wary. He drew up a
note pointing out that the Tories and Nationalists
had been in alliance for years, that the Government of
the day should bring in a measure at once, which
would receive fair play from the Liberals. Liberals
might put out an outline of essentials, but a plan
could only be carried by a Government. It will be
seen that the prospect of a Liberal Government,
though not explicitly indicated, was not ruled out,
and Rosebery was told that he might go a little farther
with Labouchere. When they met on December 12th,
Rosebery repeated his extreme aversion from negotia-
tion with Parnell at this stage. But the talk was not
purely political. Labouchere was intimate with Ran-
dolph Churchill, and was full of gossip about him, and
also about Dilke, who had become involved in un-
happy scandal earlier in the year. Rosebery was in
Scotland till almost the end of the year. While there,
he received half a dozen letters from Labouchere,
some of several pages, with inimitable stories of the
negotiations. How Parnell had disappeared " with
an Egeria of some kind," and his colleagues were
hunting for him ; how some days later they believed
that he had " retired to warm salt water baths with a
new Egeria, they did not exactly know where" ;
how Lord Carnarvon had told Justin MacCarthy that
he was in favour of a large measure of Home Rule